Commonwealth
WordNet
noun
(1) A politically organized body of people under a single government
"The state has elected a new president"
"African nations"
"Students who had come to the nation's capitol"
"The country's largest manufacturer"
"An industrialized land"
(2) A political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them
(3) A world organization of autonomous states that are united in allegiance to a central power but are not subordinate to it or to one another
(4) The official name of some states in the United States (Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Kentucky) and associated territories (Puerto Rico)
WiktionaryText
Noun
- A form of government, named for the concept that everything that is not owned by specific individuals or groups is owned collectively by everyone in the governmental unit, as opposed to a state, where the state itself owns such things.
- Approximately, a republic.
- May 19, 1649 Be it declared and enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authoritie of the same That the People of England and of all the Dominions and Territoryes thereunto belonging are and shall be and are hereby constituted, made, established, and confirmed to be a Commonwealth and free State And shall from henceforth be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free State by the supreame Authoritie of this Nation, the Representatives of the People in Parliam[ent] and by such as they shall appoint and constitute as Officers and Ministers under them for the good of the People and that without any King or House of Lords. Act of the Long Parliament.